{"id":55964,"date":"2026-04-07T11:46:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T15:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/?p=55964"},"modified":"2026-04-07T11:46:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T15:46:24","slug":"uri-pharmacy-professor-part-of-major-federal-microplastics-effort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/2026\/04\/07\/uri-pharmacy-professor-part-of-major-federal-microplastics-effort\/","title":{"rendered":"URI pharmacy professor part of major federal microplastics effort"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jaime Ross will help in nationwide effort to research, measure and remove microplastics contaminating the human body<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy and George and Anne Ryan Institute of Neuroscience Assistant Professor Jaime Ross<\/a> is taking her extensive research into the scourge of microplastics to the nation\u2019s capital after being invited to join a nationwide $144 million program \u201cto create the definitive toolbox for measuring, researching, and removing microplastics and nanoplastics in the human body.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ross received an invitation to attend the historic announcement of STOMP: Systematic Targeting Of MicroPlastics<\/a>, revealed by the federal Department of Health and Human Services and Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C.. The STOMP program, led by program managers Ileana Hancu and Shannon Greene, aims to find a way to measure microplastics in human organs, understand which plastics affect the body negatively, and seek methods to remove the contaminants. The program aims to protect people from plastic contamination and help lower the potential downstream costs that microplastic-related disease could otherwise impose on the nation\u2019s health care system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMicroplastics are in every organ we look at\u2014in ourselves and in our children. But we don\u2019t know which ones are harmful or how to remove them,\u201d said Alicia Jackson, director<\/strong><\/a> of HHS\u2019 Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). \u201cNobody wants unknown particles accumulating in their body. The field is working in the dark. STOMP is turning on the lights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ross has been shining the light on the extensive dangers of microplastics for the last five years. She has found that the microscopic plastic particles infiltrate all systems of the body<\/a>, including breaching the blood-brain barrier, which protects the brain from harmful substances as small as viruses and bacteria. In a subsequent study, published in the journal Environmental Research Communications<\/em><\/a>, Ross\u2019 team has found the accumulation of micro- and nanoplastics in the brain leads to cognitive decline, and can trigger Alzheimer\u2019s-like behavior in test mice<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was riveting to receive an invitation to attend the monumental event, \u2018Confronting Microplastics,\u2019 and discuss the STOMP initiative with policymakers and other leading scientists in the field,\u201d Ross said. \u201cWe have been long awaiting federal funding to be directed to understanding the lifecycle of microplastics in the body, and the STOMP initiative will do just that. We need to develop high-throughput, reproducible methods to detect microplastics in the body and identify ways to remove these polymers from our body. My team has been at the forefront of understanding what micro- and nanoplastics are doing to our bodies \u2013 we demonstrated that microplastics can enter the brain and that exposure can trigger a decline in brain health akin to dementia, especially in mice carrying the largest known risk factor for developing Alzheimer\u2019s disease. I look forward to working with ARPA-H, my colleagues here at URI, and other scientists across the nation on this important issue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the first phase of the federal project, researchers will design experiments to understand microplastics within the human body, including a clinical test that will quantify individual microplastic burden, thus making monitoring and intervention possible at scale. While microplastics accumulation in the human body is a generally shared concern, the extent of accumulation is not agreed upon because measurement techniques often produce inconsistent results across labs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will serve as an independent validator of these methods, ensuring the field can trust what it’s measuring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second phase will focus on harm assessment and removal of micro- and nanoplastics. Different microplastics accumulate in different organs, cross different cellular barriers, and disrupt different biological pathways. Only by knowing which types cause the most harm, where they concentrate, and how they move through the body can scientists design safe and effective interventions. The approaches will draw on pharmaceutical biology and bioremediation science, run in reverse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The technologies will enable individuals and health care providers to detect and reduce potentially harmful microplastics, particularly for vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, children, patients with chronic disease, and highly exposed workers, the HHS\u2019 Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health says. With reliable, broadly available testing methods, public health authorities, regulators, and health stakeholders could guide policy, monitor interventions, and address health impacts for decades to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday, HHS is taking decisive action to confront microplastics as a growing threat to human health,\u201d HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a release.<\/strong> <\/strong>\u201cAmericans deserve clear answers about how microplastics in their bodies affect their health. Through ARPA-H\u2019s STOMP program, we will measure microplastic exposure, identify sources of risk, and develop targeted solutions to reduce it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jaime Ross will help in nationwide effort to research, measure and remove microplastics contaminating the human body University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy and George and Anne Ryan Institute of Neuroscience Assistant Professor Jaime Ross is taking her extensive research into the scourge of microplastics to the nation\u2019s capital after being invited to join […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1710,"featured_media":55965,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1710"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55964"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55966,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55964\/revisions\/55966"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}